It’s ok to surrender wife to rapist, Egyptian Cleric says in fatwa

An Egyptian preacher has issued a fatwa – an Islamic legal opinion – according to which rape is like robbery and a husband should not risk his life protecting his wife’s honor from another man.

Yasser Burhami, the vice president of Salafist Call, the
religious arm of the political ultra-conservative Nour party, has
compared a rape with a robbery, saying that nobody should put
their live in danger for money.

“In this case he [husband] is forced [to surrender her] and
not obliged [to defend her],”Al Arabiya quoted the cleric as
saying in his fatwa.

Burhami’s remarks, published on Anasalafy.com have been widely
condemned by other clerics and activists in Egypt.

“Every Muslim has to protect his honor even if that leads him
to jail or death. The sacrifice to protect a wife'shonour is a
religious obligation,” Assaeed Mohammad Ali, an official at
Cairo's religious endowments ministry told the al-Masry al-Youm
daily.

Sheikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of al-Azhar’s fatwa
committee, said that this fatwa was “baseless in the Islamic Sharia” and
that protecting a female honor is an obligation for her husbands
and her relatives, Al Alrabiya quotes.

In a rebuttal, Salfist Call defended their cleric, saying that he
only meant there was no “obligation of defending the [wife’s]
honor.”

“But if the husband is certain that he is not capable of
defending himself, that he will die and that the honor of his
wife will be jeopardized, what can he do?” said Sheikh Ali
Hatem, a Salafist Call party spokesman.

"He is allowed to choose between sacrificing the honor and
protecting his life."

On Thursday, Egypt’s religious endowments ministry banned Burhami
from preaching in any of Egypt's mosques, saying that he is not
an al-Azhar graduate, Egypt's Islamic Research Academy.